536 CONIFERS. 



and longevity by which it is characterised in passages of 

 Holy Writ, whilst its pyramidal head, composed of nu- 

 merous and horizontal boughs, rising tier above tier in 

 thick succession, and clothed with a mantling foliage of 

 never-fading green, forms a canopy, or as the Prophet 

 Ezekiel expresses it, " a shadowing shroud" of vast extent 

 and striking appearance. This grandeur and beauty of 

 form naturally associates the Cedar, in our ideas, with 

 objects of importance and scenery of the loftiest descrip- 

 tion : and hence it is that it becomes a more appropriate 

 ornament and appendage to imposing architectural masses, 

 and grounds of wide extent, than to the precincts of a 

 modern villa, where none of the accompaniments are 

 of a corresponding magnitude, or in accordance with 

 those feelings which its presence is calculated to excite. 

 Such, also, seems the feeling of eminent painters in re- 

 gard to this tree, whenever it can appropriately be intro- 

 duced into their compositions. Thus, in several of the 

 wonderful and highly imaginative pictures of the cele- 

 brated Martin, the Cedar is prominently brought forward, 

 particularly in his representation of the destruction of Ba- 

 bylon, where it is made the principal tree in its far-famed 

 terraces and hanging gardens. It is also a prominent object 

 in the gardens of Nineveh, as represented in his fall of that 

 city, and ancient Cedars also enter into his imaginary view 

 of the Grarden of Eden.* 



Though the Cedar will grow in a variety of soils, it 

 seems to thrive more vigorously, and to attain larger di- 

 mensions, in those of a light quality, such as gravelly and 

 sandy loams, than in those of a stiff or clayey nature, pro- 



* In the " Gardener's Magazine," i. p. 122, there is a paper by Mr. Thomp- 

 son, an artist, containing many apposite and just remarks on the effect of the 

 Cedar in landscape scenery, to which we refer our readers. 



